ACID ETCHING

We had a fun class tonight.

I had a new student tonight. Very textile-y. Good job, Betty!

Cindi got to sit in tonight.

Alice's texture seems very tropical to me.

Pam's texture reminded me of an alien map of the galaxy.

Here's the texture that I made in class.

I had a class tonight at Bead Haven after quite a break. It was nice to get back to it. Tonight was acid etching. Acid etching is one of my favorite things to do. The etchant that I use is ferric chloride. Ferric chloride is a salt that becomes acidic when dissolved in water. It has a lot of advantages over more dangerous etchants such as nitric acid. It doesn't produce dangerous fumes and it isn't absorbed through the skin (don't get it on your clothes, though as it never comes out!). The main disadvantage of ferric chloride is that it doesn't work on silver. Given the price these days, I save my silver for other projects anyway. Ferric chloride will etch nickel (which makes a decent substitute for silver, in color at least), copper, brass and bronze.